The Islamic State group has detained four journalism students in Mosul on charges of leaking information from the jihadist bastion to Iraqi and media organisations, a media watchdog said Saturday.

The four were taken from their homes in different parts of the northern city late Friday, the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO), an Iraqi organisation, said in a statement.

Mosul activists and a former security official confirmed to AFP that four Mosul University students had been detained and taken to an unknown location.

A journalist who was arrested for similar reasons in June, Jala al-Abadi, was executed in mid-July.

According to JFO, IS holds at least eight journalists from the province of Nineveh, of which Mosul is the capital.

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